Fallout New Vegas Wild Wasteland trait guide

The Wild Wasteland trait can add some cool encounters to New Vegas, we track all of them down

While the Fallout series has always been fairly serious when it comes to the storyline, the world itself could be incredibly cheesy. Pop culture references, horrible jokes and numerous other references to real world events / people littered the games. While they weren’t regarded as important to the story they were usually good for a laugh… or incredibly powerful weapons if you managed to find the crashed spaceship.

Fallout 3 removed most of these elements, giving the game a bit more of a serious tone. But by givingNew Vegasto Obsidian, staffed by some of the people who worked on the first two Fallout games, it seems like they just couldn’t resist bringing the game back to its pop culture adoring roots. But to prevent those who liked Fallout 3’s more serious tone from being put off by the game, the wacky moments have been segregated away via use of the Wild Wasteland perk.

For the most part Wild Wasteland isn’t actually going to seriously change your gameplay experience. It simply changes a number of situations in the Wasteland to be a bit less serious or adds in some amusing little Easter Eggs. There is only one major change and that is where two of the unique weapons is concerned.

The first major addition is that of the Holy Frag Grenades. These unique weapons are 100% unavailable if you don’t happen to have the Wild Wasteland perk. It’s not a huge loss as these are basically just thrown mini-nukes (which is very dangerous to you) but it can be aggravating for a collector to not be able to find them. Secondly it changes an encounter that rewards you with the YCS/186 Gauss Rifle into an encounter that rewards you with an Alien Blaster. This may not be worth it depending on your playstyle.

Alien Ship

Location: Mojave Wasteland, North of Horowitz Farm

Remember those wacky aliens that stole you up during the events of Mothership Zeta? Well it seems like a bunch of them are hanging out in the northernmost parts of the map and they totally have some sweet equipment for you to loot. Most notable amongst these is the Alien Blaster, a very powerful energy weapon that can cut through anyone foolish enough to stand in your way while also being lightweight.

To get the Alien Blaster you’re going to need the Wild Wasteland perk as it changes the landscape of the area a short ways north of the Horowitz farm. The farm is found along the road northwest of New Vegas, namely Westside, so it isn’t easy to miss. Without the perk there’s a mercenary camp but with it you will see a spaceship parked on an upper ledge and three aliens around a campfire. These guys are tough but with a little bit of coercion (i.e. bullets to the face) they will go down and you can take their equipment.

Sadly the Alien Blaster isn’t that fantastic in this game. The ammo is obviously seriously limited, the damage doesn’t seem to be quite as impressive as it was in Fallout 3 and overall you’re much better off with the YCS/186… which doesn’t spawn if you have Wild Wasteland as it overwrites the mercenary camp with the alien ship which sucks.

Location: Camp Searchlight, Southern church basement

Unfortunately for your intrepid Courier these incredibly destructive weapons are held in the most heavily irradiated area in the Mojave Wasteland, Camp Searchlight. It takes a whole lot of preparation to not die within minutes of arrival so you’re going to need to prepare yourself for this. Once you’ve obtained enough Rad-X and Rad-Away (and possibly a Radiation Suit) you’re ready to acquire this weapon. Travel from Nipton to the east, past the crossroads, until you reach the radiated military base.

Make your way from the center of the camp towards the church to the south. This is located near the Fire Station so you’ll see the red trucks to let you know you’re heading the right way. When you reach the church head inside and go down into the basement storage area. A pair of Golden Gecko’s will attack so be careful – they do a lot of damage and since it’s such tight quarters a non-combat spec character can die easily here. Once they’re dead you can find these grenades on the table.

Please take note that when using these “grenades” that they’re more like mini-nukes than anything else. After it is thrown get the hell out of dodge or you’ll be blown away with whatever else is in the area. The absolute safest, and most counterintuitive, way to use these is to solely use them while indoors. Throw them through an open doorway so that it ends up inside of a different room and then slide to the side, using the walls as cover to protect you from the explosion. Otherwise… well look at the video.